The present invention relates to immunological preparations, their manufacture and use.
It is known that birds, e.g. laying hens, transfer their immunity to the yolk of their eggs and thereby to their offspring (F. W. Rogers Brambell "The transmission of passive immunity from mother to young" (1970) North Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, London).
The present invention is based on the development of novel or improved techniques for putting this phenomenon to practical use, thereby to achieve a number of novel results and advantages.
In particular it is an object of the invention to produce immunological preparations of satisfactory potency and purity for use as:
diagnostic agents PA1 treatment of pathological conditions PA1 anti-venines. PA1 r.sub.r =radius of the polymer molecule; PA1 r.sub.s =radius or stokes radius of the particle to be precipitated.
It is a further object of the invention to improve economics of antibody production by the prolonged recovery of antibody-bearing eggs during the course of the laying period.
It is a further object to produce useful or increased yields of antibodies from antigens of modest to poor immunogenic effectiveness on hens, in particular from antigens of relatively low molecular weight.
It was known to use a class of "precipitants" known as water-soluble, linear, filamentary non-charged polymers for the selective precipitation of proteins, including viruses and serum components, including immunoglobulins (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,415,804; 3,989,818, both to Polson).
Thus it is an object of the invention to modify or improve that technique so that it can be applied to the manufacture of immunological preparations, more particularly as set out above.
Further objects, advantages and uses of the invention will become apparent from what follows.